deduce some Corollaries that may be of use for the better understanding of the whole Matter 1. Reason is certain and infallible This follows from the state I gave of the Nature and Notion of Reason in the beginning It consists in First Principles and the Conclusions that are raised from them and the Observations of Sense Now first Principles are certain or nothing can be so for every possible Conclusion must be drawn from those or by their help and every Article of Faith supposeth them And for the Propositions that arise from those certain Principles they are certain likewise For nothing can follow from Truth but Truth in the longest Series of Deduction If Error creep in there is ill consequence in the case And the sort of Conclusions that arise from the Observations of Sense if the Sense be rightly circumstantiated and the Inference rightly made are certain also For if our Senses in all their due Circumstances deceive us All is a delusion and we are sure of nothing But we know that first Principles are certain and that our Senses do not deceive us because God that bestowed them upon us is True and Good and we are as much assured that whatever we duly conclude from either of them is certain because whatever is drawn from any Principle was virtually contained in it 2. I infer That Reason is in a sense the Word of God viz. That which he hath written upon our Minds and Hearts as Scripture is that which is written in a Book The former is the Word whereby he hath spoken to all Mankind the latter is that whereby he hath declared his Will to the Church and his peculiar People Reason is that Candle of the Lord of which Solomon speaks Prov. 20. 27. That Light whereby Christ hath enlightned every one that cometh into the World John 1. 9. And that Law whereby the Consciences of the Heathen either accuse or excuse one another Rom. 2. 15. So that Hierocles spoke well when he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be perswaded by God and right Reason is one and the same thing And Luther called Philosophy within its own bounds The Truth of God 3. The belief of our Reason is an Exercise of Faith and Faith is an Act of Reason The former part is clear from the last Particular and we believe our Reasons because we have them from God who cannot mistake and will not deceive So that relying on them in things clearly perceived is trust in God's veracity and goodness and that is an exercise of Faith Thus Luke 12. The not belief of Reason that suggests from God's clothing the Lillies that He will provide for us is made by our Saviour a defect of Faith Vers. 28. O ye of little Faith And for the other part that Faith is an Act of Reason that is evident also For 'T is the highest Reason to believe in God revealing 4. No Principle of Reason contradicts any Articles of Faith This follows upon the whole Faith befriends Reason and Reason serves Religion and therefore they cannot clash They are both certain both the Truths of God and one Truth doth not interfere with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle Truth agrees with all things that are Whatsoever contradicts Faith is opposite to Reason for 't is a Fundamental Principle of that That God is to be believed Indeed sometimes there is a seeming contradiction between them But then either something is taken for Faith that is but Phansie or something for Reason that is but Sophistry or the supposed contradiction is an Error and Mistake 5. When any thing is pretended from Reason against any Article of Faith we ought not to cut the Knot by denying Reason but endeavour to unite it by answering the Argument and 't is certain it may be fairly answered For all Hereticks argue either from false Principles or fallaciously conclude from true ones So that our Faith is to be defended not by declaiming against Reason in such a case which strengthens the Enemy and to the great prejudice of Religion allows Reason on his side But we must endeavour to defend it either by discovering the falshood of the Principles he useth in the name of Reason or the ill Consequence which he calls Proof 6. When any thing is offered us for an Article of Faith that seems to contradict Reason we ought to see that there be good cause to believe that this is divinely revealed and in the sense propounded If it be we may be assured from the former Aphorisms that the Contradiction is but an Appearance and it may be discovered to be so But if the Contradiction be real This can be no Article of Revelation or the Revelation hath not this sense For God cannot be the Author of Contradictions and we have seen that Reason as well as Faith is his I mean the Principles of Natural Truth as well as those of Revelation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith Aristotle Truth is throughout contrary to falshood and what is true in Divinity cannot be false in Reason 'T is said indeed in the Talmud If two Rabbins differ in Contradictories yet both have their Opinions from Moses and from God But we are not obliged to such an irrational kind of Faith And ought not to receive any thing as an Article of it in a sense that palpably contradicts Reason no more than we may receive any sense that contradicts the direct Scriptures Faith and Reason accord as well as the Old Testament and the New and the Analogy of Reason is to be heeded also because even that is Divine and Sacred 7. There is nothing that God hath revealed to oblige our Faith but he hath given us reason to believe that he hath revealed it For though the thing be never so clearly told me if I have not reason to think that God is the Revealer of what is so declared I am not bound to believe it except there be evidence in the thing it self For 't is not Faith but vain credulity to believe every thing that pretends to be from God So that we ought to ask our selves a Reason why we believe the Scripture to be the Revelation of God's Will and ought not to assent to any sense put upon it till we have ground to think that that sense is his mind I say we must have ground either from our particular Reasons or the Authority of the Church otherwise our Faith is vain Credulity and not Faith in God 8. A Man may hold an erroneous Opinion from a mistaken sense of Scripture and deny what is the truth of the Proposition and what is the right meaning of the Text and yet not err in Faith For Faith is a belief of God revealing And if God have not so revealed this or that as to give us certain ground to believe this to be his sense he hath not sufficiently revealed it to oblige our Faith So that though I deny such or such a sense while I believe
upon others nor do I care to endeavour the change of their Minds though I judge them mistaken as long as Vertue the Interests of Religion the Peace of the World and their own are not prejudiced by their Errors By this modest indifference I secure Charity for all the diversities of Belief and equally offer my Frienship and Converses to the several Sects and Perswasions that stick to the plain Principles of the Gospel and a Vertuous Life overlooking their particular fondnesses and follies This is the temper of my Genius and this some warm People who have more Heat than Light are apt to call Scepticism and cold Neutrality But that it deserves better Names I have made appear in some other Papers True it is That the Men of the meer Epicurean sort have left God and Providence out of their Accounts But other Philosophers have shewn what Fools they are for doing so and how absurd their pretended Philosophy is in supposing things to have been made and ordered by the casual hits of Atoms in a mighty Void And though their general Doctrine of Matter and Motion be exceeding ancient and very accountable when we suppose Matter was at first created by Almighty Power and its Motions ordered and directed by Omniscient Wisdom Yet the supposal that they are independent and eternal is very precarious and unreasonable And that all the regular Motions in Nature should be from blind tumultuous jumblings intermixtures is the most unphilosophical Fansie and ridiculous Dotage in the World So that there is no reason to accuse Philosophy of a Fault which Philosophy sufficiently shames and reproves and yet I doubt too many have entertain'd great prejudice against it upon this score and 't is a particular brand upon some of the modern Men that they have revived the Philosophy of Epicurus which they think to be in its whole extent Atheistical and Irreligious To which I say that the Opinion of the World 's being made by a fortuitous concurrence of Atoms is impious and vile And this those of Epicurus his Elder School taught Whereas the late Restorers of the Corpuscularian Hypothesis hate and despise the wicked and absurd Doctrine But thus far they think the Atomical Philosophy reasonable viz. as it teacheth That the Operations of Nature are performed by subtile streams of minute Bodies and not by I know not what imaginary Qualities and Forms They think That the various Motions and Figures of the parts of Matter are enough for all the Phaenomena and all the varieties which with relation to our Senses we call such and such Qualities But then they suppose and teach That God created Matter and is the supreme Orderer of its Motions by which all those Diversities are made And hereby Piety and the Faith of Providence is secured This as far as we know any thing of elder Times was the ancient Philosophy of the World and it doth not in the least interfere with any Principle of Religion Thus far I dare say I may undertake for most of the Corpuscularian Philosophers of our times excepting those of M. Hobbes his way And therefore I cannot but wonder at a late Reverend Author who seems to conclude those Modern Philosophers under the name and notion of such Somatists as are for meer Matter and Motion and exclude immaterial Beings whereas those Learned Men though they own Matter and Motion as the material and formal causes of the Phenomena They do yet acknowledge God's Efficiency and Government of all Things with as much seriousness and contend for it with as much zeal as any Philosophers or Divines whatsoever And 't is very hard that any number of Men should be exposed to the suspicion of being Atheists for denying the Peripatetick Qualities and Forms and there is nothing else overthrown by the Corpuscularian Doctrines as they are managed by those Philosophers So that methinks that Reverend Person hath not dealt so fairly with the great Names of Des-Cartes and Gassendus where he mentions them promiscuously with the meer Epicurean and Hobbian Somatists without any note to distinguish them from those Sadduces For both those celebrated Men have laboured much in asserting the Grand Articles of Religion against the Infidel and Atheist But 2. 't is alledg'd by some Philosophy disposeth Men to despise the Scriptures or at least to neglect the study of them and therefore is to be flighted and exploded among Christians To this I say That Philosophy is the knowledge of God's Works and there is nothing in God's Works that is contrary to his Word How then should the study of the one incline Men to despise the other Certainly had there been any such impious tendency in searching into God's Works to the lessening of our value of the Scriptures The Scripture it self would never have recommended it so much unto us Yea this is so far from being true that on the contrary the knowledge of God's Works tends in its proper nature to dispose Men to love and veneration of the Scriptures For by familiarity with Nature we are made sensible of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God fresh Instances of which we shall find in all things And 't is one great design of the Scripture to promote the Glory of these Attributes How then can he that is much affected with them chuse but love and esteem those Holy Records which so gloriously illustrate the Perfections he admires Besides by inquiry into God's Works we discover continually how little we can comprehend of his Ways and Menagements and he that is sensible of this will find himself more inclined to reverence the declarations of his Word though they are beyond his reach and though he cannot fathom those Mysteries he is required to believe Such a disposition is necessary for the securing our Reverence to the Divine Oracles and Philosophy promotes it much So that though 't is like enough there may be those that pretend to Philosophy who have less veneration and respect for the Scripture than they ought yet that impious disesteem of those sacred Writings is no effect of their Philosophy but of their corrupt and evil Inclinations And to remove the scandal brought upon Natural Wisdom by those Pretenders it may be observed that none are more earnest or more frequent in the proof and recommendation of the Authority of Scripture than those of Philosophical Inclination and Genius who by 〈◊〉 â—…mblick Capacity and Profession have the best opportunities to give testimony to the Honour of that Divine Book But to justifie the imputation of the disservice Philosophy doth Religion and the Scriptures it may by some be pleaded That Philosophy viz. that which is called the new teacheth Doctrines that are coutrary to the Word of God or at least such as we have no ground from Scripture to believe For instance That the Earth moves and That the Moon is of a Terrestrial Nature and capable of Inhabitants which Opinions are presumed to be impious and Antiscriptural In return to this
I say 1. In the general 'T is very true that Philosophy teacheth many things which are not revealed in Scripture for this was not intended to instruct Men in the Affairs of Nature but its Design is to direct Mankind and even those of the plainest Understandings in Life and Manners to propose to us the way of Happiness and the Principles that are necessary to guide us in it with the several Motives and Incouragements that are proper to excite our Endeavours and to bear them up against all Difficulties and Temptations This I say was the chief Design of that Divine Book and therefore 't is accommodated in the main to the most ordinary capacities and speaks after our manner suitably to sense and vulgar Conception Thus we find that the Clouds are called Heaven the Moon one of the greater Lights and the Stars mentioned as less considerable and the Stars also Gen. 1. We read of the going down of the Sun and of the ends of the Earth and of the Heavens and divers other such Expressions are in the Scriptures which plainly shew That they do not concern themselves to rectifie the Mistakes of the Vulgar in Philosophical Theories but comply with their Infirmities and speak according as they understand So that 2. No Tenent in Philosophy ought to be condemned and exploded because there may be some occasional Sayings in the Divine Oracles which seem not to comport with it And therefore the Problems mentioned concerning the Motion of the Earth and Terrestrial Nature of the Moon ought to be left to the Disquisitions of Philosophy The Word of God determines nothing about them for those Expressions concerning the running of the Sun and its standing still may very well be interpreted as spoken by way of accommodation to Sense and common apprehension as 't is certain that those of its going down and running from one end of the Heavens to the other and numerous resembling Sayings are so to be understood And when 't is else-where said That the Foundations of the Earth are so fixt that it cannot be moved at any time or to that purpose 'T is supposed by Learned Men that nothing else is meant but this That the Earth cannot be moved from its Centre which is no prejudice to the Opinion of its being moved upon it For the other Hypothesis of the Moon 's being a kind of Earth the Scripture hath said nothing of it on either hand nor can its silence be argumentative here since we know That all Mankind believes many things of which there is no mention there As that there are such places as China and America That the Magnet attracts Iron and directs to the North and that the Sea hath the motion of Flux and Reflux with ten thousand such other things discovered by Experience of which there is not the least hint in the Sacred Volume And are not these to be believed till they can be proved from Scripture This is ridiculously to abuse the Holy Oracles and to extend them beyond their proper Business and Design To argue against this Supposal as some do by Queries What Men are in that other Earth Whether fallen and how saved is very childish and absurd He that holds the Opinion may confess his ignorance in all these things without any prejudice to his Hypothesis of the Moon 's being habitable or the supposal of its being actually inhabited For that may be though no living Man can tell the Nature and Condition of those Creatures But for my part I assert neither of these Paradoxes only I have thought fit to speak thus briefly about them that they may be left to the freedom of Philosophical Inquiry for the Scripture is not concerned in such Queries And yet besides this which might suffice to vindicate the Neoterick Philosophy from the charge of being injurious to the Scripture in such Instances I add 3. The Free Experimental Philosophy which I recommend doth not affirm either of those so much dreaded Propositions For neither of them hath sufficient evidence to warrant peremptory and dogmatical Assertions And therefore though perhaps some of those Philosophers may think they have great degrees of probability and are fit for Philosophical Consideration Yet there are none that I know who look on them as Certainties and positive Truths 'T is contrary to the Genius of their way to dogmatize for things of so great an uncertainty or to be confident against them where there wants full proof to assure the Negative But whether the one be true or the other Religion and the Scriptures are not at all concerned Thus briefly of the Slanders that are affixt upon Philosophy viz. of its Tendency to Atheism and disparagement of the Scriptures The other lesser ones are answered in the discussion of these BUT besides the foul and slanderous Imputations fastned on Philosophy there are some vulgar plausibilities pretended the chief of which I shall now recite and answer 'T is said 1. There is too much curiosity in those Inquiries and St. Paul desired to know nothing but Christ and him crucified To which I answer That what is blameable curiosity in things not worth our pains or forbidden our scrutiny is Duty and laudable endeavour in Matters that are weighty and permitted to our search So that no ill can justly be fastned upon Philosophical Inquisitions into Nature on this account till it be first proved That a diligent observance of God's Goodness and Wisdom in his Works in order to the using them to his Glory and the benefit of the World is either prohibited or impertinent There is indeed such a depth in Nature that it is never like to be throughly fathomed and such a darkness upon some of God's Works that they will not in this World be found out to Perfection But however we are not kept off by any expressness of Prohibition Nature is no Holy Mount that ought not to be touched yea we are commanded To search after Wisdom and particularly after this when we are so frequently called upon to celebrate our Creator for his Works and are encouraged by the success of many that have gone before For many shall go to and fro and Science shall be increased So that our Iniquiries into Nature are not forbidden and he that saith they are frivolous and of no use when the Art of the Omniscient is the Object and his Glory and the good of Men the end asperseth both the Creator and the Creature and contradicts his duty to both As for the latter clause of the Objection which urgeth that Speech of St. Paul of his desiring to know nothing but Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 2. 2. I return to it That he that shall duely consider the Discourse of the Apostle in the verse before and those that succeed will perceive That in this expression he only slights the affected Eloquence of the Orators and Rhetoricians He spoke in plainness and simplicity and not in those inticing words of Man's Wisdom which he
made And the Royal Psalmist speaks to the like purpose Psal. 19. The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy-Works And again Psal. 148. 3. Praise him Sun and Moon praise him ye Stars and Light which intimates that these Works of his afford Matter to our Reasons for Religious Acknowledgments And Reason proves the Existence of God srom the beauty and order and ends and usefulness of the Creatures for these are demonstrative Arguments of the Being of a wise and omnipotent Mind that hath framed all things so regularly and exactly and that Mind is God This Article then Reason proves which was the first Branch of the Particular and I add that it is Reason only that can do it which was the other For there are but three things from whence the Existence of any Being can be concluded viz. Sense Revelation or Reason Sense hath no more to do here but to present Matter for our Reasons to work on and Revelation supposeth the Being of a God and cannot prove it for we can have no security that the Revelation is true till we are assured it is from God or from some commissioned by him The knowledge of his Being therefore must precede our Faith in Revelation and so cannot be deduced from it So that only Reason is left to assure us here And thus Reason lays the very Corner Stone of Religion The next to this is the other Principle mentioned viz. 2. The Divine Authority of Scripture This also is to be proved by Reason and only by it The great Argument for the truth of Scripture is the Testimony of the Spirit in the Miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles Our Saviour himself useth this Argument to gain credit to his Doctrines Believe me for the Work 's sake The Works that I do bear testimony of me and if I had not done among them the Works that no other Man did they had had no sin John 15. 24. And the Apostles continually urge that great Miracle the Resurrection of Christ from the dead for the conviction both of the Jews and Gentiles That he was the Son of God and his Doctrines true Now Miracles are an Argument to our Reasons and we reason from them thus Miracles are God's Seal and they are wrought by his Power and he is true and good and would not lend these to Impostors to cheat and abuse Mankind Therefore whoever works real Miracles for the confirmation of any Doctrine it is to be believed that he is taught of God and commissioned to teach us And that Christ and his Apostles did those things which are recorded of them is Matter of Testimony and Reason clears the validity of this by the aggregation of multitudes of Circumstances which shew That the first Relators could not be deceived themselves and would not deceive us nor indeed could in the main Matters if they had designed it And the certainty of the conveyance of those things to us is evinced also by numerous convictive Reasons So that the matter of Fact is secure and that such Doctrines were taught as are ascribed to those Divine Persons and those Persons inspired that penned them are proved the same way And so it follows from the whole that the Gospel is the Word of God and the Old Testament is confirmed by that Thus Reason proves the Divine Authority of Scripture and those other Arguments that use to be produced for it from its Stile and its influence upon the Souls of Men from the excellency of its Design and the Providence of God in preserving it are of the same sort though not of the same strength Reason then proves the Scriptures and this only for that they are from God is not known immediately by Sense and there is no distinct Revelation that is certain and infallible to assure us of it and so Reason only remains to demonstrate the Article These two great Truths The Existence of God and Authority of Scripture are the first in our Religion and they are Conclusions of Reason as well as Foundations of Faith And thus briefly of those Principles of Religion that are presupposed unto it we have seen how Reason serves for the Demonstration of them II. I COME now to the other sort of Principles viz. those that are formally so They are of two sorts â—…t and pure The mixt are those that are discovered by Reason and declared by Revelation also and so are Principles both of Reason and Faith Of this kind are the Attributes of God Moral good and evil and the immortality of Humane Souls The Principles of pure Faith are such as are known only by Divine Testimony as the Miraculous Conception the Incarnation and the Trinity The first sort Reason proves as well as Scripture this I shew briefly in the Instances mention'd 1. That the Divine Attributes are revealed in the Holy Oracles is very clear and as plain it is that they are deduced from Reason For 't is a general Principle through the World That God is a Being absolutely perfect And hence Reason concludes all the particular Attributes of his Nature since Wisdom Goodness Power and the rest are Perfections and imply nothing of imperfection or defect and therefore ought to be ascribed to the infinitely perfect Being 2. That there is moral Good and Evil is discoverable by Reason as well as Scripture For these are Reason's Maxims That every Thing is made for an end and every Thing is directed to its end by certain Rules These Rules in Creatures of understanding and choice are Laws and the transgressing these is Vice and Sin 3. The Immortality of our Souls is plain in Scripture and Reason proves it by shewing the spirituality of our Natures and that it doth from the nature of Sense and our perception of Spiritual Beings of Vniversals and of Logical Metaphysical and Mathematical Notions From our compounding Propositions and drawing Conclusions from them From the vastness and quickness of our Imaginations and liberty of our Wills all which are beyond the Powers of Matter and therefore argue a Being that is Spiritual and consequently immortal which Inference the Philosophy of Spirits proves Also the Moral Arguments of Reason from the goodness of God and his Justice in distributing Rewards and Punishments the nature of Vertue and tendencies of Religious Appetites conclude I think very hopefully That there is a Life after this Thus in short of the Principles I called mixt which Reason demonstrates BUT for the others viz. 2. Those of pure Revelation Reason cannot prove them immediately nor is it to be expected that it should For they are Matters of Testimony and we are no more to look for immediate proof from Reason of those things than we are to expect that abstracted Reason should demonstrate That there is such a place as China or that there was such a Man as Julius Caesar All that it can do here is to assert and make good the credibility and truth of the Testimonies
God and had eminently his Superscription on them shall be ascribed to the Agency of Evil Spirits and Diabolical Compact as they were by the malicious and spightful Pharisees when those great and last Testimonies against Infidelity shall be said to be but the Tricks of Sorcery and Complotment with Hellish Confederates This is Blasphemy in the highest against the Power and Spirit of God and such as cuts of all means of Conviction and puts the Unbeliever beyond all possibilities of Cure For Miracles are God's Seal and the great and last Evidence of the truth of any Doctrine And though while these are only dis-believed as to the Fact there remains a possibility of Perswasion yet when the Fact shall be acknowledg'd but the Power Blasphemed and the Effects of the Adorable Spirit maliciously imputed to the Devils such a Blasphemy such an Infidelity is incurable and consequently unpardonable I say in sum the Sin against the Holy Ghost seems to be a malicious imputation of the Miracles wrought by the Spirit of God in our Saviour to Satanical Confederacy and the Power of Apostate Spirits Then which nothing is more blasphemous and nothing is more like to provoke the Holy Spirit that is so abused to an Eternal Dereliction of so Vile and so Incurable an Unbeliever This account as 't is clear and reasonable in it self so it is plainly lodg'd in the mention'd Discourse of our Saviour And most of those that speak other things about it seem to me to talk at random and perfectly without Book I Have thus endeavoured to remove the Main Prejudices against the belief of Witches and Apparitions and I 'me sure I have suggested much more against what I defend than ever I heard or saw in any that opposed it whose Discourses for the most part have seemed to me inspired by a lofty scorn of common belief and some trivial Notions of Vulgar Philosophy And in despising the Common Faith about Matters of Fact and fondly adhering to it in things of Speculation they very grosly and absurdly mistake For in things of Fact the People are as much to be believ'd as the most subtile Philosophers and Speculators since here Sense is the Judge But in Matters of Notion and Theory They are not at all to be heeded because Reason is to be Judge of these and this they know not how to use And yet thus it is with those wise Philosophers that will deny the plain Evidence of the Senses of Mankind because they cannot reconcile Appearances to the fond Fancies of a Philosophy which they lighted on in the High-way by Chance and will adhere to at adventure So that I profess for mine own part I never yet heard any of the confident Declaimers against Witchcraft and Apparitions speak any thing that might move a Mind in any degree instructed in the generous kinds of Philosophy and Nature of things And for the Objections I have recited they are most of them such as rose out of mine own Thoughts which I obliged to consider what might be to be said upon this occasion For though I have examined Scot's Discovery sancying that there I should find the strong Reasons of Mens dis-belief in this Matter Yet I met not with any thing in that Farrago that was considerable For the Author doth little but tell odd Tales and silly Legends which he confutes and laughs at and pretends this to be a Confuration of the Being of Witches and Apparitions In all which His Reasonings are Trifling and Childish and when He ventures at Philosophy He is little better than absurd So that I should wonder much if any but Boys and Buffoons should imbibe Prejudices against a Belief so infinitely confirmed from the loose and impotent Suggestions of so weak a Discourser But however observing two things in that Discourse that would pretend to be more than ordinary Reasons I shall do them the civility to examine them It is said 1. THat the Gospel is silent as to the Being of Witches and 't is not likely if there were such but that our Saviour or his Apostles had given intimations of their Existence The other is 2. MIracles are ceased and therefore the prodigious things ascribed to Witchcraft are supposed Dreams and Impostures For Answer to the First in order I consider 1. That though the History of the New Testament were granted to be silent in the Business of Witches and Compacts yet the Records of the Old have a frequent mention of them The Law Euod 22. 18. against permitting them to live is famous And we have another remarkable prohibition of them Deut. 18. 10. 11. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his Son or his Daughter pass through the Fire or that useth Divination or an Observer of Times or an Enchanter or 〈◊〉 Witch or a Charmer or a Consulter with Familiar Spirits or a Wizard or a Necromaneer Now this accumulation of Names some of which are of the same sense and import is a plain indication that the Hebrew Witch was one that practised by compact with evil Spirits And many of the same Expressions are put together in the Charge against Manasses 2 Chron. 33. viz. That he caused his Children to pass through the Fire observed Times used Inchantments and Witchcraft and dealt with Familiar Spirits and with Wizards So that though the Original word which we render Witch and Witchcraft should as our Sadduces urge signifie only a Cheat and a Poisoner yet those others mention'd plainly enough speak the thing and I have given an account in the former Considerations how a Witch in the common Notion is a Poisoner But why meer poisoning should have a distinct Law against it and not be concluded under the general one against Murder why meer Legerdemain and Cheating should be so severely animadverted on as to be reckon'd with Inchantments converse with Devils and Idolatrous Practices I believe the denyer of Witches will find it hard to give a reason To which I may add some other Passages of Scripture that yield sufficient evidence in the Case The Nations are forbid to hearken to the Diviners Dreamers Inchanters and Sorcerers Jer. 27. 9. The Chaldaeans are deeply threatned for their Sorceries and Inchantments Isa. 47.9 And we read that Nebuchadnezzar called the Magicians Astrologers Sorcerers and Chaldaeans to tell his Dream My mention of which last minds me to say that for ought I have to the contrary there may be a sort of Witches and Magicians that have no Familiars that they know nor any express Compact with Apostate Spirits who yet may perhaps act strange things by Diabolick Aids which they procure by the use of those Forms and wicked Arts that the Devil did first impart to his Confederates And we know not but the Laws of that Dark Kingdom may injoyn a particular attendance upon all those that practise their Mysteries whether they know them to be theirs or not For a great interest of their Empire may be served
what he had related before concerning Faith and the false notions of it among the Fanites and then said Justification is either taken for the making us just or the dealing with us as if we were such And that Faith is taken as a single Grace viz. The belief of the Gospel or complexly as it comprehends all the rest viz. The whole body of Holiness Having premis'd which necessary distinctions He told me That Faith in the single acception of it was the great instrument of the Gospel to make us just and so justified in the proper Physical sense But that as it compriseth the other Graces it justifies in the forensick and less proper sense viz. That God deals with the Faithful namely those that are sincerely obedient to the Gospel as if they had been strictly and perfectly just and had fulfill'd his Laws By the help of which short and plain state of the controversie methought I saw clearly into the whole matter and was free'd from many perplexities and confusions in which I was wont to be involv'd And being thus inform'd of the principles of those Divines in those chief heads of Doctrine I had a curiosity to have an account of their mind concerning the Form of Ecclesiastical Government about which there had been so much stir in our European parts of Christendom and therefore intreated him to represent their opinion to me in this subject To which he answer'd me thus The Antient Form of Church Government in this Island ever since the plantation of Christianity in it hath been Episcopal But of later years it was very much hated and opposed by the Ataxites who set up new Modells every sect it 's own fancy as the only divine Government and Discipline of Christ So that the Scriptures were rack'd and every little word and point forc'd and many subtilties of interpretation suborn'd to declare for the beloved imagination and then the whimsie was voted to be of divine right and the only Scripture-Government and the advancing of it made no less then the Interest of Gods Glory and the promoting of Christs Kingdom On the other side the antient Government was decry'd as superstitious Church Tyranny Humane Invention a limb of Antichrist to be extirpated root and branch by a thorow Godly Reformation In which design as I told you they succeeded to the subversion both of the Civil and Ecclesiastical state But when they had destroy'd they knew not how to build for they could never agree upon the Platform to be erected in the room of that which they had subverted For every Sect was for setting up it 's own frame and every one had a different Model from every other and each was confident that it's Form was Christs Institution and so by no means to be receded from in the least point The effects of which were endless Animosities Hatreds and Struglings against each other and the greatest rage and violence of them altogether against the Church of Bensalem and all Episcopal constitutions Amidst these Bandyings some Antifanatick Divines taught That there was no reason to think that any particular Model was prescrib'd in Scripture so as to be unalterable and universal That it was necessary there should be a Government in the Church That the Apostles had appointed General Officers and General Rules such as God's Glory Edification Decency Order avoidance of Offence and the like but that it did not appear they had determined the particular Circumstances and Form That there was no express command of them and that the plea of Apostolical example could it be made out would not hold for an universal Law to the Church in all ages except where there was some intrinsick necessary goodness in the things practised or some annext Precept to inforce it That there was neither of these in the present case and therefore they urged That the Form and Circumstances of Government was to be left to the Ruling Powers in the Church to be order'd by them so as should seem best to suit with the General Rules and Ends of Government By the means of which Principles Foundation was lay'd for Peace and Obedience and that age was prepared for the reception of the old Legal establish'd Government when it should be restored Concerning This those Divines taught That it was of all the most venerable Form and greatly to be rever'd for its Antiquity Vniversality and the Authority it had from Apostolical Practice and our Fundamental Laws That on these and other accounts it was infinitely to be prefer'd and chosen before any new-fangled Model upon the score of which declarations and discourses in the Ataxites times great complaint was made by them among the foolish Zealots of their party that the Vniversities were over-run with a Prelatical spirit than which nothing was more odious in those days But the prudent men took no notice of their clamours but went on with the design of propagating such sober Principles as tended to the healing of the Nation When the publick Government of the Church was restor'd They most chearfully put themselves under it and submitted to its Orders heartily upon the belief of its being the most Primitive Catholick Prudent Legal Government in the world I Have now said the Governour past over the particulars in which you desir'd to be inform'd much more might have been said of them but I know your own thoughts will improve these suggestions which are enough to give light to the main Notions I returned him my humble acknowledgements for the care and pains he had taken to satisfy and inform me in these and the other heads of those Mens Doctrines To which he answer'd That it was a great pleasure and satisfaction to him if he had given me any content by his relation and then will'd me that if there were ought in the Theological part that I had any query about I would propose it freely For said he we have a little time more to spare in talking of this first General if you have any curiosity to be inform'd further of any thing belonging to it I answer'd that he added to his favours by the liberty of Questioning he was pleased to allow me and that I had one thing more to desire a few words of if he so pleas'd which was what Way of Preaching those Divines followed This said He I should have minded my self and am very glad you remember me of it You must know then continued He That there was not a greater diversity in any thing in Bensalem in the Age of which I now speak than in the Modes of Preaching of which amongst other evils this was one and not the least That the people distasted and contemn'd all the Doctrines and Instructions that were not deliver'd after their own fashion though otherwise never so seasonable and wholesome and inordinately admiring their own men who spoke in the Phrase and Mode that they fancied they vilified and despis'd those others that us'd another method though it were never so